Fife Employment Access Trust (FEAT) are celebrating a significant award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to transform the future of Silverburn Park in Leven.

FEAT are a Fife-wide award-winning mental health and employment specialist charity, also celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and are celebrating an award of £374,600 initially by the Fund to enter the formal development phase of the project which ultimately aims to renovate the B-listed former flax mill in the Park into a hub of commercial and community activities ranging from a hostel, café and community space, serving local people and visitors from the Fife Coastal Path.

Duncan Mitchell, General Manager at FEAT, says, “It’s been a long road to get to this point and I have to thank Fife Council and particularly current and previous members of the Levenmouth Area Committee who gave us the opportunity to lease the Park and hopefully spark new life into the site with wider benefits for the local community.”

It was back in 2012 that Fife Council marketed Silverburn as a development opportunity as a way of securing its regeneration, while at the same time safeguarding public access and the natural and historical value, with FEAT being named as the preferred partner.

Since then a wealth of activity has taken place to begin the regeneration of the Park and undertake the feasibility studies, community consultations and detailed designs – as well as fully cost the renovations work.

Duncan adds, “The funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund will now enable us to focus on securing the remainder of the funding needed to complete the construction phase of the project and finalise the designs for the renovation of the mill, as well as maintaining our vision to develop the Park as a place of quiet enjoyment, conserving the cultural values of the landscape and buildings, supporting the health & wellbeing of the community and enhancing the habitat and biodiversity of the environment. The funding will also support FEAT to ensure that meaningful training, volunteering, work experience and employment opportunities are available to their core client group and the surrounding community.

Once we can establish the final project, it will also be an income-generator for the charity and therefore reduce our reliance on grant funding to sustain our core work.”

FEAT will continue to work in partnership with Fife Council throughout this next phase of the programme, as well as Fife Historic Buildings Trust who have extensive experience – and success – of supporting successful implementation of similar projects across the Kingdom.

Further details of FEAT’s vision and aims for the Park are available at www.silverburnpark.co.uk and regular updates on the current daily activities at the Park are on their facebook page. Those developments have included managing volunteer and training programmes, opening a small café last year with plans to open a campsite this year as a pre-cursor to the flax mill re-development. 

FEAT have also delivered a wide variety of community events and this Saturday (29th June) the Friends of Silverburn group are hosting a free family fun day from 12-3 pm.

Brian Robertson, Chair of the Silverburn project Board, adds, “It’s been a long haul to get to this point of the project and we have a vast amount of work to do now to ensure we can raise the remainder of the funding required to transform the Park – however, the support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund is a huge advantage to us when approaching others – they have shown faith in our plans, and our ability to deliver these plans, and everyone connected with FEAT is on cloud 9.”

Cllr Ken Caldwell convener of Levenmouth Area Committee welcomed the news saying: "This is great news for Levenmouth that FEAT has secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage fund. We're in full support of FEAT and are working closely with them on redevelopment plans for Silverburn Park. We want Silverburn to be an asset for the community; somewhere everyone can enjoy."

Christine May, Chair of Fife Historic Buildings Trust said, "All at FHBT are so proud to have helped the Silverburn team to achieve this wonderful financial support, the result of months of hard work and co-operation. We are looking forward to getting stuck in with all the partners involved and to making the dream a reality."

FEAT's vision is to enable and support individuals to reach their full positive mental wellbeing in a culture         where there is no stigma. Employing an inclusive, non-judgemental approach to prepare, support and empower         people to flourish by managing their mental health for life - whatever life does, by: providing service users         with strategies and tools to improve their resilience and employability, creating safe, nurturing, supportive         and compassionate environments to encourage personal growth, developing strategic partnerships with         complementary and diverse organisations that share our vision, working with others to eliminate the stigma on         mental health in the workplace and communities, supporting the welfare and continuous professional development of staff and volunteers so they may continue to provide exceptional services.

Employ Your Mind is an innovative vocational rehabilitation project aimed at developing the employability skills of inpatients and outpatients of Fife mental health services. Recently replicated in Australia, through close         partnership working, the aim of Employ Your Mind is to move students closer towards accessing more mainstream job-seeking services. Employ Your Mind began in June 2012 and we have secured substantial further funding and expect to continue the project beyond March 2020. The Team Lead will manage a team of four learning coaches, and be part of an internationally recognised, world-leading programme delivering cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) and employability skills. Working closely with other Team Leads, you will be part of a number of projects working with students and clients with complex mental health problems, at different stages on their journey towards employment. The role involves leading on the design and delivery of group-based and individual employability and personal development interventions, work placement sourcing/support and delivery and design of CRT to a wide range of participants who study over a 6-month period. The role also involves writing and delivering CRT and bespoke Employ Your Mind training to other professional teams.

As Team Lead, you will have a good working knowledge of the third sector and be used to working in diverse         partnerships. With previous management experience, you will be skilled at presenting to various audiences and         have knowledge of outcome reporting to funders and preparing reports. The Team Lead could be a qualified         occupational therapist or be from a psychology, mental health nursing, clinical social care or other similar         background and will be familiar with client-centred tools which have a broad focus on occupational performance         across all activities of daily living, including self-care, leisure and productivity and personal life         circumstances. You should have some knowledge of CRT and be experienced delivering a range of employability based soft skills to both individuals and groups with complex, severe and enduring mental health conditions. Co-delivering elements of the accredited training programme, the Team Lead will develop new content for the coursework. Based in our offices in Glenrothes with occasional travel, you are also expected to carry out a proportion of work in NHS inpatient/outpatient settings within Fife, with patients with complex mental health conditions, on a one-to-one basis.

Candidates will be required to undergo a PVG check.  Salary from £27,635-£32,974 depending on experience

The closing date for applications is Monday 8th April at 5 pm.

Interviews will be held on 25th April at FEAT offices in Glenrothes

Application packs are available here. Please do not send a  C.V.

If you wish to discuss the role before applying please contact: Wendy@feat.org.uk or Duncan@feat.org.uk or call 01592 759371

For our 25th anniversary, we are holding our AGM on 12th March 2019 in Rothes Halls, Glenrothes.

It would be great to see past staff and board members, service users and volunteers come along and take a quick step back down memory lane and also hear about current exciting plans and developments, as well as the Fife premiere of a short film being made focussing on FEAT.

If you would like to come along, please get in touch as soon as possible, space (and sandwiches) will be limited!